It Was a Year For Hubris and Haughtiness

The second year of the coronavirus as the dominant world issue carried with it some stunning displays of pomposity, conceit, and wildly inflated senses of self-importance. As society struggles with individual rights v “the common good,” those who would define the latter have been astonishingly brazen in placing themselves in the rarefied air of positions so lofty it causes human heads to swell.

Without further ado, then, here at the Top Five Most Megalomaniacal Quotes of 2021.

1. Dr. Anthony Fauci – I Am Science

The omnipresent National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director appeared on CBS’s Face the Nation on Nov. 28 to hit back at critics of his controversial tenure as leading public figure for the federal response to the coronavirus, which has included relentless promotion of rigid social curbs in the name of health.

In doing so, he made a startling assertion: he is the embodiment of science. To hurt him is to hurt established empirical truth itself.

“Anybody who's looking at this carefully realizes that there's a distinct anti-science flavor to this,” Fauci told host Margaret Brennan of the heat he has taken. “If they get up and criticize science, nobody's going to know what they're talking about. But if they get up and really aim their bullets at Tony Fauci — people could recognize there's a person there. There’s a face, there’s a voice you can recognize, you see him on television. So, it’s easy to criticize, but they’re really criticizing science because I represent science.”

2. Arnold Schwarzenegger – Screw Your Freedom

The Terminator was coming for those who oppose rigid coronavirus social restrictions. “There is a virus here — it kills people,” Hollywood actor and former Republican California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said on a YouTube podcast, “and the only way we prevent it is get vaccinated, get masks, do social distancing, washing your hands all the time, and not just to think about ‘Well, my freedom is being kind of disturbed here.’ No, screw your freedom.”

A telling sentence in The Hill’s coverage of the remarks speaks volumes:

“The action movie-star-turned-politician's remarks were part of a discussion with CNN's Bianna Golodryga and Alexander Vindman to promote Vindman's new book, Here, Right Matters.”

Yes, Schwarzenegger used an occasion meant to shill books for one of the leading lights in the heavy-handed failed first attempt to impeach President Donald Trump to make his fatuous comment. The title of Vindman’s book makes for a perfect segue to the next item on our list.

3. Juliette Kayyem – We Are Right and Just

While Kayyem may not seem a prominent figure, she should not be brushed off lightly. Kayyem served as an assistant secretary of Homeland Security in the Obama administration and is a professor and board member at Harvard. An establishment media staple, she is a “national security, intelligence and terrorism analyst” for CNN.

What made her quote so memorable is how it perfectly captures the dangerous self-righteousness of vaccine mandate enthusiasts. In a rabidly zealous tweet on Aug. 29, Kayyem wrote:

“This is great. I think the vaccinated forget 1) we are 75% of the eligible vaccinated population so with majority comes benefits; 2) we are right and just; and 3) we are so over their feelings.”

In one sentence, a former Homeland Security official proclaimed that force of numbers matters more than individual liberty in America today, that vaccine mandates are being driven more by a religious sense of certainty than by science, and that the personal feelings of any fellow citizens who would disagree mean nothing.

4. Jacinda Ardern – You May Now Use the Bathroom Inside

The world has been shocked to see Australia and neighboring New Zealand turn into ruthlessly authoritarian states during the pandemic. On Nov. 29, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern revealed just how far-reaching her government’s paternalism could be.

“You can now see family and friends again in their homes — and use the bathroom inside. Luxury!” Ardern had the audacity to declare in an update on her regime’s social protocols.

Any defense that the prime minister was joking is even more offensive. Ardern seems to think that treating an entire nation of free people as children who need to be carefully watched over by government is something that can be made light of in a manner familiar to many a bemused mom or dad. The sense of entitlement is astounding.

5. 

   Joe Biden – Word Salad of Your Choice

“But it’s it’s the kind of thing or you know stuff that’s coming out of Florida stuff that’s coming out of you know Robert E. Lee had been in Afghanistan we’d have won anyway I’m, I’m telling you too much….”

A random example. Feel free to recall your own. The big question for 2022 is how long this can go on. A sitting president of the United States regularly comes off as completely incomprehensible in his communications.

It is not Biden who is displaying megalomania here. Rather, it is the handlers behind the curtain who pushed him forward for thinking they could foist this as their front man on the American people. What can be more arrogant than that?

~ Read more from Joe Schaeffer.